[*Welcome Treehugger readers: Don’t miss this follow-up story about Brian’s motorhome bike.] ———————- BikePortland.org reader Bob Crispin sent in these photos after seeing this wayward pedaler on the streets of Northeast Portland.

Amazingly, the guy claims to have ridden this contraption all over the U.S. and down to Mexico.

According to Bob,

[Snug as a bug]

“He said his design was inspired by the moon rovers and the moon landing vehicle, the super structure and the shiny panels. The interior was sweet too, looked comfy, and had a map holder and lots of neat nooks and crannies to store stuff.”

This thing just blows me away. Bob says the guy talked like a serious engineer, had been on the road for several years and that the bike was very well built, and even “appeared to be light given what it was.”

The craziest thing is that despite days of torrential rain, Bob said it was dry inside the cabin. Here are more photos (click image to enlarge):

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I’ve seen this rig several times near Citybikes over the past few weeks and was just thinking yesterday that you should write an article about it. I really should stop and check it out a bit more. I saw him riding one day and he had a huge grin. Looks like fun!

I lived in Davis, CA about two years ago and saw him there. He would come through town about every six months or so. He seemed like a very friendly guy and I was amazed at how well the bike performed and its reliability. I probably saw him four or five years in a row and he was always cruising around on it with a big smile.

This man and his mobile home were featured on the cover of the now-defunct Car Free Times about 9 or 10 years ago. When he stopped by the shop I recognized him immediately.

According to that article, the inventor has had little more than a high school education and taught himself what he needed to know about engineering through tiral and error, and a knack for understanding how things work. It’s an ingenious design and shows his talent immediately. He did tell me that it weighs “a whole lot” and it apparently takes quite a lot of push to get the forward momentum going! Brilliant.

Reminds me of me an oversized velomobile. Velomobiles are kind of like oversized trikes, with storage capacity, a brief, nonspecific explanation for the unfamiliar. I’m been checking out the Lightfoot Velomobile, Stormy Weather, that will start being produced early next year by Lightfoot Cycles, a company in Montana (I don’t work for them) Expensive but a year round vehicle like “John Does” beast.

It was interesting because my touring buddy had actually seen him down in san diego. Then when we were riding up thru Big Sur, CA, we caught him one morning and spoke for a bit. His rig definitely put ours to shame. I tried to get on him about releasing design schematics. It sounded like he had surely considered it, but I’m not sure how jazzed he was on that. Seems like it could be a good way to financially support extended road living, but maybe its just not how he wants to do it…

I just saw the rig and the man in front of city bikes. He was talking with a friend (his) and I mentioned that I saw the bikeportland article – he must have been having a shit day because he sort’a grunted back – “great another damn magazine I am in and get no money from!” He then asked for a donation saying he was broke and hungry – I said “lets head to food not bombs, it should be happening soon.” He said he couldn’t afford food not bombs. Each time I tried to mention something like “bike portland is a local website site… food not bombs is free…” he just retreated into his rv and uttered angry words.

My hero! A pedal trailer is my plan B if ever I should loose my home, or just want to take to the road. There is another guy, Steven Roberts, who pedals around on two wheels, with a high tech equipped recumbent. Been doing it for some years too. http://microship.com/ Very inspiring. If anyone should see him, please let him know the link, I am sure he would be very interested in seeing what another road brother is doing.

hey ya\’ll from canada… this is a wild bike /home i have been building bike trailers for behind bikes and am currently turning mine into a elcamino style vehicle powered by a homelight chainsaw engine maybe 30cc\’s at most. will be used for taking me and my daughter to the local pond to race our rc boats…. will try to get good pics when finished… keep up the great work:)

That is a cool ride! I met him in Davis CA and chatted him up about it. It has a flywheel as well as about 5 rear derailleur in series for a total of at least 15,625 gear combinations and perhaps as many as 43,046,721. It is made out of aluminum angle and foam insulating panels. The guy was a bit fried but the bike was really cool.

I am a life-long camper and RVer always interested in innovative ways people travel and enjoy the roving lifestyle. This is certainly a way cool example of innovation and personal freedom but best of all it is it is affordable and has a low impact on the environment.

I have helped many a tent camper \”get up off the ground\” and into a popup or larger RV as an introduction to the RVing side of camping and am interested in finding unique RVs and ways people economically improve their camping machines.

Two of my latest discoveries are a slideout bed that comes out the back doors of a camper van (home made but very cool) and a commercial product Western RV News calls \”The Coolest Camper Ever\” on the front page of their April 2008 edition.

It is a 700 pound popup type toyhauler camper that is truly awesome. It is called the Go and can be viewed at http://www.SylvanSport.com. Check it out. I am thinking of towing one behind my camper van.

A bit of bad news I read about the man that owned and rode that bike, while he was staying in a small town somewhere some “good ol boys” destroyed his vehicle and beat him up pretty bad. I know nothing else about it.

“quote” A bit of bad news I read about the man that owned and rode that bike, while he was staying in a small town somewhere some “good ol boys” destroyed his vehicle and beat him up pretty bad. I know nothing else about it.

what?. if so theyre true scumbags.i havent heared anything like that myself and i watch the site for brian updates daily. hang in there brian.

Did anyone ever take a good photo of the underside of his bike, with all those derailleurs hanging out down there? I thought I had taken one from about 7 or 8 years ago when he passed by my house in Berkeley, CA, but that was before I met a digital camera and I don’t know where the photo ended up, or if I actually took one.